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Miami HeraldAfter six years of thinking her series of bronze sculptures were irretrievably lost, an Iraqi artist was reunited with them Friday in Miami Beach.
Set atop a table inside the Miami Beach Botanical Gardens were five figures of women in different poses: one held her child above her head with outstretched arms, another cradled her baby against her chest.
How the art and its creator got to Miami Beach is a strange tale, featuring a con artist, police and embarrassed city officials.
While she was living in Jordan in 2001, a Miami Beach resident persuaded Iraqi sculptor Lamia Jamal Talebani, 60, to send him the series of elongated, sensuously curved bronze sculptures depicting Iraqi women holding their children.
''He said he was a gallery owner. He even paid for the shipping and insurance for the pieces,'' Talebani said.
Little did she know her client was a con artist who had swindled several artists of their work and kept them for himself. Posing as FedEx delivery men, undercover Miami Beach police arrested him in 2002.
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